Australia has highest tablet take-up in the world: study

Liam Tung

Why would Microsoft offer Australian retailers its Surface RT tablet ahead of other nations?

One reason might be that Australians are snapping up tablets faster than consumers in most places, according to a study by Britain's communications regulator, Ofcom, which compares communications characteristics of 16 nations to the UK.

With a take up of 24 per cent, Australians, along with Spaniards, had the most tablets per capita, Ofcom found after carrying out a survey in October 2012 with more than 1000 Australians.

Italy and the US followed with tablet take up rates of 23 per cent and 20 per cent, while Britain had 19 per cent.

The figures for Australia are consistent with the Australian Communications and Media Authority's (ACMA) recent report on the state of communications in Australia, which found 29 per cent of households accessed the internet via a tablet.

The British study does not give a reason for differences in ownership rates, but points out it may relate to "cultural factors, differences in affordability and local market structures".

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Figures from web analytics firm NetApplications suggest nearly all the tablets in Australia are iPads.

Ofcom also found that 56 per cent of Australians owned a smartphone, with only Britain and Spain ahead with 58 and 64 per cent ownership respectively. The ACMA reported 49 per cent of adults owning one as of May 2012, marking a 25 per cent surge since 2011.

At the same time, Australians turned away from the desktop and laptop to access the internet more than any other nation. The population using a traditional computing device declined 9.8 per cent to 13.8 million, according to Ofcom.

On the other hand, Australians are spending an hour more at their desktops online than their UK and US counterparts. Time spent on desktops or laptops in Australia rose 14 per cent compared with last year, while in Britain and the US it fell by about 9 per cent to 5½ hours a week.

Along with the rise of mobile device ownership, Australia has also experienced the fastest rate of growth in mobile broadband adoption.

The number of mobile broadband connections in Australia rose from 20 to 25 per 100 households, making it the biggest user of mobile broadband in the study. By contrast, Britain had 8 connections per 100 households. Only Sweden had comparably high rates of mobile broadband adoption.

The ACMA also found mobile internet access through smartphones and dongles had surged by over 20 per cent each to reach 22 million subscribers.

Communications costs in Australia were also the highest in absolute terms across compared nations. Revenue per head in Australia was $A1736, followed by Japan ($1656) and the US ($1648), while British consumers paid $1133 per head.